Ihop

Rock on The Walkman is making a comeback, sort of. To better compete with Apple, Sony said Wednesday that it plans to grab half the digital music player market in Japan with Walkmans featuring karaoke-like lyric displays, exclusive to models in that country. To counter the move, Apple soon will unveil a new line of iPods that write and perform their own songs, grow brooding and distant, and eventually check themselves into rehab. News released In our inbox Wednesday: "Morton Arboretum...

Feb 27 (Reuters) - DineEquity Inc, owner of the Applebee's and IHOP restaurant brands, reported a 34 percent fall in quarterly profit following the sale and refranchise of Applebee's company-operated restaurants and due to higher income taxes. The company, which has been selling restaurants to franchisees, said fourth-quarter net income fell to $18 million, or 97 cents per share, from $27.3 million, or $1.51 per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, DineEquity...

Al Lapin Jr., an entrepreneur and restaurateur who along with his brother founded the International House of Pancakes in 1958 with a single restaurant in Toluca Lake, Calif., has died. He was 76. Mr. Lapin died of cancer Wednesday at USC/Norris Cancer Center in Los Angeles, according to his son, Randy. The businessman's roller-coaster ride through restaurant chains began with a series of coffee carts called Coffee Time; it peaked with IHOP, which acquired several competitors including Orange Julius,...

Rock on The Walkman is making a comeback, sort of. To better compete with Apple, Sony said Wednesday that it plans to grab half the digital music player market in Japan with Walkmans featuring karaoke-like lyric displays, exclusive to models in that country. To counter the move, Apple soon will unveil a new line of iPods that write and perform their own songs, grow brooding and distant, and eventually check themselves into rehab. News released In our inbox Wednesday: "Morton Arboretum...

The Arlington Heights Plan Commission on Wednesday night recommended approval of a special-use permit for the construction of an International House of Pancakes at 31 E. Golf Rd. The restaurant will be housed in the vacant Guitars Plus building. A representative of IHOP, Paulette Ramsey Wood, said the restaurant's full name could not fit on the village's standard 35-foot-wide sign. "We have 28 letters in our name. A 35-foot sign would be too small," said Wood, noting a minimum width...

With each scintillating performance, it's a little easier to forget Jereme Richmond's nightmarish 2007-08 season. The 6-foot-7-inch junior from Waukegan who is the No. 1 recruit for Illinois has been tearing up the high school basketball world in recent weeks. Watching this gifted 16-year-old put up 24 points and 20 rebounds against Glenbrook North and 14 points, 16 rebounds, 11 blocks and six assists against Evanston, you understand why Rivals.com rates the Illinois recruit the...

Feb 27 (Reuters) - DineEquity Inc, owner of the Applebee's and IHOP restaurant brands, reported a 34 percent fall in quarterly profit following the sale and refranchise of Applebee's company-operated restaurants and due to higher income taxes. The company, which has been selling restaurants to franchisees, said fourth-quarter net income fell to $18 million, or 97 cents per share, from $27.3 million, or $1.51 per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, DineEquity...

IHOP Corp. said Monday that it has agreed to buy Applebee's International Inc. for $1.9 billion in cash, and plans to sell restaurants to franchisees to reduce costs and debt. News of the agreement sent IHOP shares to their biggest gain in 21 months. IHOP stock increased $4.99, or 8.9 percent, to a record $61.24, on the New York Stock Exchange, its biggest jump since October 2005. Shares of Applebee's increased 53 cents, to $24.91, on the Nasdaq stock market. Applebee's investors will get...

Helen Marie Lietz, 94, a longtime Chicago resident, died Saturday in her home in Geneva. Born on Chicago's Northwest Side, Mrs. Lietz graduated from business school at age 17. She worked as a bookkeeper for Amalgamated Bank in Chicago until she married John Lietz in 1939. Living in a house near Cicero and Diversey Avenues, she took care of her daughter and her parents. She enjoyed books and nature, but her greatest passion was food. "She always tried new restaurants and recipes," her daughter, Suzanne Millington,...

Al Lapin Jr., an entrepreneur and restaurateur who along with his brother founded the International House of Pancakes in 1958 with a single restaurant in Toluca Lake, Calif., has died. He was 76. Mr. Lapin died of cancer Wednesday at USC/Norris Cancer Center in Los Angeles, according to his son, Randy. The businessman's roller-coaster ride through restaurant chains began with a series of coffee carts called Coffee Time; it peaked with IHOP, which acquired several competitors including Orange Julius,...

Put together enough pointless, random details, and you get "Gigli," a movie that's less incompetent than bewildering. Writer-director Martin Brest somehow thought combining the most incongruous elements of "Chasing Amy," "Rain Man" and "Pulp Fiction" was a good idea. Try this on: "Gigli" is the heartwarming tale of mob henchman Larry (Ben Affleck), who falls for curvaceous lesbian Ricki (Jennifer Lopez), hired to keep an eye on him while he guards the mentally challenged young guy he's kidnapped so his boss can...

Put together enough pointless, random details, and you get "Gigli," a movie that's less incompetent than bewildering. Writer-director Martin Brest somehow thought combining the most incongruous elements of "Chasing Amy," "Rain Man" and "Pulp Fiction" was a good idea. Try this on: "Gigli" is the heartwarming tale of mob henchman Larry (Ben Affleck), who falls for curvaceous lesbian Ricki (Jennifer Lopez), hired to keep an eye on him while he guards the mentally challenged young guy he's kidnapped so his boss can...

If their political careers don't pan out, some Chicago aldermen might consider going into sales. Turns out a group of them have become excellent pitch-men and women as part of their efforts to bring new retailers and restaurants to their wards. For the past three years, the city's Department of Planning and Development has dispatched a contingent of aldermen to the International Council of Shopping Centers trade show in Las Vegas. The plan: Let the aldermen sell retailers on opportunities...

If their political careers don't pan out, some Chicago aldermen might consider going into sales. Turns out a group of them have become excellent pitch-men and women as part of their efforts to bring new retailers and restaurants to their wards. For the past three years, the city's Department of Planning and Development has dispatched a contingent of aldermen to the International Council of Shopping Centers trade show in Las Vegas. The plan: Let the aldermen sell retailers on opportunities...

With each scintillating performance, it's a little easier to forget Jereme Richmond's nightmarish 2007-08 season. The 6-foot-7-inch junior from Waukegan who is the No. 1 recruit for Illinois has been tearing up the high school basketball world in recent weeks. Watching this gifted 16-year-old put up 24 points and 20 rebounds against Glenbrook North and 14 points, 16 rebounds, 11 blocks and six assists against Evanston, you understand why Rivals.com rates the Illinois recruit the...

Helen Marie Lietz, 94, a longtime Chicago resident, died Saturday in her home in Geneva. Born on Chicago's Northwest Side, Mrs. Lietz graduated from business school at age 17. She worked as a bookkeeper for Amalgamated Bank in Chicago until she married John Lietz in 1939. Living in a house near Cicero and Diversey Avenues, she took care of her daughter and her parents. She enjoyed books and nature, but her greatest passion was food. "She always tried new restaurants and recipes," her daughter, Suzanne Millington,...

IHOP Corp. said Monday that it has agreed to buy Applebee's International Inc. for $1.9 billion in cash, and plans to sell restaurants to franchisees to reduce costs and debt. News of the agreement sent IHOP shares to their biggest gain in 21 months. IHOP stock increased $4.99, or 8.9 percent, to a record $61.24, on the New York Stock Exchange, its biggest jump since October 2005. Shares of Applebee's increased 53 cents, to $24.91, on the Nasdaq stock market. Applebee's investors will get...

The Arlington Heights Plan Commission on Wednesday night recommended approval of a special-use permit for the construction of an International House of Pancakes at 31 E. Golf Rd. The restaurant will be housed in the vacant Guitars Plus building. A representative of IHOP, Paulette Ramsey Wood, said the restaurant's full name could not fit on the village's standard 35-foot-wide sign. "We have 28 letters in our name. A 35-foot sign would be too small," said Wood, noting a minimum width...

IHOP to go public again: IHOP Corp., the Glendale, Calif.-based parent of International House of Pancakes, which was taken private in a 1987 leveraged buyout, is going public again with an initial public offering of 3.1 million common shares worth up to $43 million. IHOP operates 490 International House of Pancakes restaurants.